Kat’s Tat [PHOTOS & VIDEO]

You may have heard me talking about my plans for a new tattoo. Well, I did it! AND it’s AWESOME! I have had the idea for the tattoo for a while now, and had just been waiting for the right time, and the right artist. I finally found both. I want to start by saying a big, huge, gigantic THANK YOU to Shane Klos at Revolution Ink!!! He took the words that I wanted tattooed, “Crazy Beautiful Perfectly Flawed,” and turned them into a beautiful piece of art that I now get to carry with me everywhere I go. I could not have asked for a more perfect visual translation of the words! I also have to say “Thank you” to my friend Yvonne James for stopping in to grab some great photos of my experience!!

Facebook/Yvonne James

Tattoos are an amazing way to commemorate life. They tell a story. This is my tenth tattoo, and it means a lot to me. Tomorrow will mark the 33rd year of my life, and to celebrate, I knew that it was time to get MY tattoo. I have struggled for a lot of years with the need to achieve perfection – in every aspect of my life – Relationships: I have the tendency to give so much of myself that I forget to care for myself too. Career: I strive to always do my very best. I have to succeed. Motherhood: This is my biggest self-applied pressure. Dear God, please don’t let me fail. My daughter deserves better than I had. She has to know that I love her and she is always my top priority. “Anything less than perfect is failure. There is no in between.” This was how I lived my life for many years.

Facebook/Yvonne James

Crazy Beautiful: In February, I met Mike. Well sort of… We had been friends on Myspace and Facebook for about 5 years. He had made several attempts to get me to hang out. “We should get together for a beer sometime.” And I kept making excuses. Until January… That’s when I agreed to finally meet Mike, and go out for a drink. We had our first “date” (it wasn’t supposed to be a date), the second week of February. He and have I have been pretty much inseparable since. Mike is amazing! He makes me laugh uncontrollably, and for once in my life I feel like I can really just be myself. Mike tells me that he thinks I’m beautiful. I always answer by telling him that I think he’s crazy! It’s not that I don’t believe that Mike feels that way, it’s just that I’ve never seen myself that way. Not really… But you know, maybe he’s right. In my own way, I guess I am beautiful, and I am definitely a little crazy!

Facebook/Yvonne James

Perfectly Flawed: My personal life has never been easy. Even as a teenager I struggled. I struggled at home. I struggled socially (I was awkward. I didn’t fit in. And YES I was bullied). Fast forward to “Grown-up Kat”- In the last 3 years, I have gone through a great deal of changes and a lot of ups and downs. Those changes, and those ups & downs have made that philosophy of “Anything less than perfection is failure” really hard to maintain. In fact those things have actually made that philosophy IMPOSSIBLE! What I have learned is that perfection does not exist. In fact I have learned that no matter how hard I try, I will never be perfect. The closest I will ever come to perfection is being “Perfectly Flawed.” I am going to make mistakes. I am going to fail. And ultimately, that is OKAY. Life will continue on, and even though it won’t be perfect, I will survive it. I will become stronger.

Facebook/Shane Klos

So, yeah. That’s the story. Although it’s not been an easy 33 years, I survived. I get to hold my head up with the knowledge that “Crazy Beautiful Perfectly Flawed” is exactly what I am, and it’s PERFECT!